The National Kitten Coalition eLearning Center

Dr. Vernau is a clinical professor of Neurology/Neurosurgery and is a member of the Accessible Veterinary Care program at UC Davis. She has an interest in feline neonatal medicine and strives to improve the health and welfare of kittens. Dr. Vernau serves as faculty mentor for the Orphan Kitten Project (OKP) at UC Davis, which is a veterinary student-run non-profit organization. OKP takes in orphaned and abandoned neonatal from the community and local shelters. Kittens are fostered by veterinary students or members of the community, who raise them in their own homes. Kittens with medical or surgical conditions are prioritized for intake into OKP where their medical conditions are treated. Kittens are vaccinated, microchipped, FeLV tested, spayed/neutered, and dewormed before adoption. Dr. Vernau and her family have been fostering kittens together since 2013. They have one dog and five cats, all rescues.

Following graduation from the University of Melbourne in 1988, Dr. David Maggs spent 5 years in mixed practice throughout Australia, England, Scotland, and Wales. He then completed both small animal and equine internships at Colorado State University, and a research fellowship and comparative ophthalmology residency at the University of Missouri. Dr. Maggs joined the faculty at the University of California-Davis in 2000 where he is now Professor Emeritus. He is co-author of Slatter’s Fundamentals of Veterinary Ophthalmology, which has been translated into 6 languages. Dr. Maggs’ major interests are ocular surface disease, with a particular focus on the management of dry eye disease and feline herpesvirus.